*No spoilers, just appreciation*
Search Party is the best show I have watched in such a long time. It is the perfect combination of macabre and this-is-so-me-and-my-friends relatable. Never have I watched a show as riveting, as immersive, as hilarious, or as anxiety-inducing as Search Party. It is a dream come true. My friends will have to beg me to stop talking about it, but I’m going to have to say “no. I listened to you go on and on about Orange is the New Black for what I think was twenty years. So, here is my HBO Max login, please clear your schedule and binge the four incredible seasons of this show ASAP. Love, Emily.” The free
trial period will even get you through them in a pinch. I would recommend canceling your plans to make time for Alia Shawkat’s phenomenal acting. Tell your friend you don’t want to hang out with them in a park with six feet between you because you are going to be occupied for the foreseeable future.
It’s good silly television, but it is so smart. It has crafted for itself permission to go to extremes in all ways. From dialogue, to characters, to set design, to the wild and unstoppable plot: it is, at every turn, both insane and brilliant. So many shows make me furrow my brow when they go too far with circumstances, but this show makes you shrug and say, “anything is possible.” Because it’s just the right combination of camp and reality to have permission to break boundaries! I mean how much louder can I sing it’s praise? Can you hear me? I sound very pitchy but I’m singing the truth!
The writers make you love these characters so much. The main four: Dory, Drew, Portia and Elliott, feel like your best friends. The show grounds itself with their multifaceted, complex humanness, and is equally so far out into space with their outlandish portrayals of the exaggerated millennial. There are moments when these
characters are nothing more than caricatures of people. Portia and Elliott in particular serve up much of the comic relief. They are ludicrous and infuriating but you cannot resist adoring them. I want nothing to do with any of these people but also yearn desperately to be the fifth member of their friend group. Drew is perhaps the most down to earth, which is saying a lot for this show. He feels familiar, and his presence in a scene is comforting (when it isn’t nail-biting.) Dory, on the other hand, is all things. Protagonist, antagonist, anti-hero, heroine, friend, foe, human, monster. She is a fascinatingly complex character and when watching all four seasons you watch her change and shift from the “normal” person you could relate to, into something you might be afraid of becoming. It is exhilarating and disheartening and so, so entertaining.
I am late to this (search) Party as an HBO newbie, as they just confirmed an upcoming fifth season (!!!) So if you haven’t seen it, you are in for a mind boggling treat. It could not be an easier show to binge-watch.
Side note: if you've ever been personally attacked by @jtfirstman on Instagram like I have, you'll know why this show is so funny. He, along with a ton of other talented people, writes for it!